Zambrano struggles as Marlins shutout by Rays

The Marlins are 3-10 in the month of June after scorching through May with a major league-best 21-8 record.

June 15, 2012|By Coley Harvey, Sun Sentinel

ST. PETERSBURG — While sitting in his customary dugout perch before Friday's series opener at Tampa Bay, Miami manager Ozzie Guillen once lifted his black Marlins hat and promptly placed it back on his head.

He was tipping his cap, he said, to the quality pitchers who have confounded his team faced in recent days.

By the end of the Marlins' latest ballgame, though, he may have had a different reason to lift his hat — to tear his hair out.

Doing so certainly could have been understandable.

For the ninth time in 10 tries, his Marlins lost, this time falling to the Rays, 11-0. They also lost another player to injury, after reliever Sandy Rosario was placed on the disabled list with a right quad strain suffered during the eighth inning.

The Marlins already had three players on the disabled list and had to scratch Hanley Ramirez from Friday's lineup with a freak injury.

"We're not pounding the strike zone the way we should (on the mound), we're not hitting the way we think we can hit," Guillen said. "Not pitching and not hitting equals bad (loss). We lost the game pretty bad."

Miami's defeat came in the opener of a seven-day, six-game road trip, and six days after Tampa Bay swept the Marlins in South Florida.

The loss also was Miami's sixth in nine interleague games this season. The Marlins are 3-10 in the month of June after scorching through May with a major league-best 21-8 record.

"Last (month) we had the best ballclub in baseball and this one we have the worst club in baseball," Guillen said. "In the dugout, everybody's definitely pulling for each other. ... I don't know if they're trying too or they're desperate. No matter what it is, just change your approach."

For the second consecutive start, Marlins starter Carlos Zambrano changed very little. He was shaky once again as he labored through another outing that saw him make a third-inning departure.

Six days after giving up seven earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in a 13-4 loss to the Rays, the 11-year veteran was run early from Friday's game.

"I walked too many guys," Zambrano said. "Blame this one on me."

Following a quick two-strikeout first inning, Zambrano came undone in the second and third.

Four Rays walked in the second, leading to a three-run frame that was capped by Jose Lobaton's RBI double that hugged the right field line as it bounced toward the corner. Tampa Bay leadoff hitter Desmond Jennings also had an RBI in the inning on a single to left field.

Zambrano threw 46 pitches in the protracted inning. When he departed in the third, he had thrown 78 pitches total. Only 41 of them were strikes. He walked six.

"As a veteran of this team, I have to be able to control the situation and I couldn't do that," Zambrano said.

Despite having dealt with back stiffness in recent weeks, Zambrano told reporters after the game that he was not hurting. He said he liked the way the ball came out of his hand Friday, and felt no discomfort. He and Guillen could only surmise that there was some small mechanical issue that existed in his delivery.

"I still believe in myself," Zambrano said.

Making matters worse for the Marlins was the fact they were facing Tampa Bay starter Matt Moore for the second time in a week. In his last outing, Moore confounded the Marlins to the tune of a five-hit effort in a 13-4 win against Zambrano.

Moore said he nearly exclusively used his fastball and changeup in that start.

Whatever he threw against Miami on Friday worked. Moore had a scoreless, one-hit performance that was supported by his bullpen. He lasted seven innings and struck out eight and became the first Tampa Bay starter in two years to allow just one hit in seven or more innings of work. The last Rays pitcher to do so was Matt Garza, who had a no-hitter in 2010.

"We need to hit," Guillen said. "If we want to get better, we need to get better offensively."

Twelve Miami hitters struck out.

Before the game, the Marlins scratched third baseman Hanley Ramirez from the lineup after he was hit in the face by a batted ball that bounced off a screen in the stadium's internal batting cage.

About two hours before the game began, he was replaced in the order by Donovan Solano, whose first-inning single to left field stood as Miami's lone hit.